Storage, the means of holding and protecting commodities for later use.

Foodstuffs were probably the first goods to be stored, being put aside during months of harvest for use in winter. To preserve it from rotting, food was treated in a variety of ways—e.g., dried, smoked, pickled, or sealed in water- and air-tight containers and placed in cool, dark cellars for storage. Modern refrigeration techniques made it possible to store agricultural products with a minimum of change in their natural condition.

Commerce created another major need for storage facilities. The basic goals in commercial storage are protection from weather and from destructive animals like rodents and insects, as well as security from theft. Storage facilities must also serve as a reservoir to accommodate seasonal and fluctuating demand. Efficiency in the transportation of goods often makes the accumulation of a reserve in storage (called stockpiling) advisable. Stockpiling is often advisable for greatest production efficiency as well, for it enables a factory to produce more of a single item than is immediately marketable before initiating the often costly and time-consuming procedures for adjusting production lines for another product. Thus, storage serves commerce as a holding operation between manufacture and market. In another type of storage, called terminaling, pipelines are used to transport products in flowable form directly from the factory to the point of storage.

Transportation, especially transportation over long distances by slow means (such as water-borne shipment), may technically be considered as an aspect of storage. Consignment of goods by diverting shipments is an effective way to satisfy immediate market demand. The use of such “rolling warehouses” is common in both the chemical and lumber industries.

The rule of thumb in transporting of goods is that the higher the volume shipped at one time, the lower the cost per item. Thus, the economics of making a large number of shipments must be weighed against the cost of accumulating goods in storage for a single shipment of a large number of items. Within the marketing process, transportation and storage have what are called place-time values, derived from the appropriate appearance of products when and where they are needed. In manufacturing as well, a high value must be placed on the insurance provided by the storing of parts (raw materials, components, machinery) necessary for production so that they are easily available when necessary.

Large companies typically manufacture different but related items at a variety of locations, seldom producing their complete line at a single plant. Through the operation of storage houses called distribution centres, companies are able to offer their customers a complete selection of all their products, efficiently shipping whole mixed orders at once, rather than piecemeal from each factory.

Accurate market forecasting is essential to the successful functioning of a distribution centre, where the flow of products must be continuous in order that space not be wasted on unused or obsolete items. Further consolidation of the process is accomplished by the public warehouse, to which many companies ship their products, and from which a buyer can purchase a wide variety of items in a single shipment. Of course, in public warehousing, the manufacturer loses control over the handling of the product and over some of the aspects of customer relations. This disadvantage must be weighed against the underutilization of personnel and facilities that occurs in a private operation susceptible to fluctuating demand.

Some goods can be stored in bulk jointly with identical goods of the same quality and specifications without distinction as to manufacturer ownership. Thus, bulk products, such as standard chemicals or cereal grains, from different producers are placed in the same tank or silo in the warehouse. Each of these products can then be sold at a price appreciably lower than otherwise possible owing to the savings realized over individual storage and handling of small amounts. Similarly, the same product purchased by two retailers can continue to be stored together and then separated and inventoried as shipments to individual markets are made.

Custody storage is a static type of storage. Goods of a high value such as business records and personal items are kept safe for a long period of time without handling. Capacity and security are then the most relevant factors.

Storage facilities are tailored to the needs of accessibility, security, and climate. Refrigerated space must be carefully designed, and heated areas must also be efficiently planned. In all storage facilities, fireproof materials such as concrete and steel are preferable. These materials lend themselves readily to prefabrication and have good insulating and acoustic properties.

Warehousing, the dynamic aspect of storage, is largely an automated process, designed to facilitate stock rotation by means of a combination of equipment such as stacker cranes built into the storage area, remote-controlled forklift trucks for vertical and horizontal movement of goods, and gravity flow racks, in which pallets are automatically replaced in a line. Many warehouses are computer-controlled from dispatching towers.

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